Systems and Methods for Virtual Environment Construction for Behavioral Research

1. A system for monitoring behaviors of a participant during a virtual reality environment simulation, the system comprising: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a hardware-agnostic canvas for a virtual reality environment, wherein the hardware-agnostic canvas comprises a database of objects in the virtual reality environment and coordinates for locating the objects at a location in the virtual reality environment, and trigger information relating to a threshold and a survey question that may be triggered, and translation logic for translating the hardware-agnostic canvas into a viewer-specific format; a viewer device configured to present the virtual reality environment to the participant; and a processor in communication with the storage medium, the processor being programmed to track a gaze location with an attention tracking module, as a function of the gaze location, calculate an attention score for one or more objects in the database of objects; and when the attention score exceeds the threshold, trigger presentation of the survey question.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object in the virtual reality environment is a function of the amount of time the gaze location matches the coordinates of the particular object.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object in the virtual reality environment is a function of the number of times the gaze location matches the coordinates of the particular object.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object in the virtual reality environment is a function of the distance between the gaze location and the coordinates of the particular object.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the objects comprise: setting objects for defining the virtual reality environment and environment objects representing objects of interest in a study.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the attention tracking module collects gaze data regarding an amount of time spent with the gaze location matching each of the environment objects.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the translation logic translates the gaze data collected by the attention tracking module into a hardware-agnostic format.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein: the storage medium further stores translation mapping information, the translation mapping information comprising display information for a plurality of different types of viewer devices, and the translation logic accesses the translation mapping information to translate the hardware-agnostic canvas into the viewer-specific format suitable for the viewer device in real time during the virtual reality environment simulation.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware-agnostic canvas comprises vector image data for rendering an object of the hardware-agnostic canvas in the virtual reality environment.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: manipulate, in real time, a hardware-agnostic canvas for a virtual reality environment, wherein: the hardware-agnostic canvas comprises a database of objects to be placed in the virtual reality environment, and the database further comprises trigger information relating to a threshold and a survey question that may be triggered; apply translation logic to translate the hardware-agnostic canvas into a viewer-specific format, transmit virtual reality environment information in the viewer-specific format to a viewer; track a gaze location with an attention tracking module, as a function of the gaze location, calculate an attention score for one or more objects in the database of objects; and when the attention score exceeds the threshold, trigger presentation of the survey question.

11. The medium of claim 10 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object in the virtual reality environment is a function of the amount of time the gaze location matches the coordinates of the particular object.

12. The medium of claim 10 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object in the virtual reality environment is a function of the number of times the gaze location matches the coordinates of the particular object.

13. The medium of claim 10 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object is a function of the distance between the gaze location and the coordinates of the particular object.

14. The medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to: access translation mapping information, the translation mapping information comprising display information for a plurality of different types of viewers, and using the translation mapping information to translate the hardware-agnostic canvas into the viewer-specific format.

15. The medium of claim 14 , wherein the hardware-agnostic canvas is translated into the viewer-specific format in real time as a viewer displays the virtual reality environment.

16. A method, comprising the steps of: accessing, using a processor of an electronic device, a hardware-agnostic canvas for a virtual reality environment, wherein the hardware-agnostic canvas comprises: a plurality of objects to be placed in the virtual reality environment, coordinates for locating the objects in the virtual reality environment, trigger information relating to a threshold, and a survey question that may be triggered; tracking a participant's gaze location with an attention tracking module; as a function of the gaze location, calculating an attention score in relation to a target object in the database of objects; and when the attention score exceeds the threshold, trigger presentation of the survey question.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the tracking comprises: tracking the gaze location relative to the target object with: first eye-tracking hardware in a virtual reality headset; second eye-tracking hardware in the attention tracking module; and receiving data, at a server, based on data output by the first and second eye-tracking hardware, sufficient to determine the gaze location relative to the target object.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object in the virtual reality environment is a function of the amount of time the gaze location matches the coordinates of the particular object.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object in the virtual reality environment is a function of the number of times the gaze location matches the coordinates of the particular object.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the calculation of the attention score for a particular object in the virtual reality environment is a function of the distance between the gaze location and the coordinates of the particular object.